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“When I was dropping off my partner at the airport, I wasn’t sure if we were going to see each other again. It’s like watching somebody drown.” That’s how one Indonesian-American gay couple described their separation before they reunited in Canada.

They found refuge in a country that recognizes same-sex marriage and embraces them with a relatively open immigration system.

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Landed, which can be seen and heard now at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre, was inspired by artist Sarah Foy’s own experience as an American love exile in Canada — though in her case her partner, Luise Heyerhoff, is Canadian.

“Within a couple of weeks of my arrival in Canada, I met another couple who landed here for the same reason. This inspired me to find as many couples as I could who immigrated to Canada because they could not live together in the U.S. or the country where the foreign partner is from,” said Foy, who met Heyerhoff in the U.S. in 2009 and landed here last year.

“It made me think that this is a pretty special place. If Canada hadn’t worked out, it’d have been the end of many of these relationships. It’s Canada or nothing else. I thought there’s a story to be told, and I wanted to find a way to share the struggles these couples went through for love.”

Through friends, advocacy groups such as Immigration Equality, personal blogs and even Craig’s List, Foy found more than 50 such bi-national couples — men and women, from their 20s to 70s, with a wide spectrum of professional backgrounds and nationalities across the continents.

Most of the foreign partners — from Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Japan, Holland, France, Indonesia, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Spain, U.K. and Greece — met their American partners in the U.S.

While some delayed their departures from the States by returning to school or seeking jobs on work permits, others simply remained there illegally to stay with their spouses.

After months of in-person interviews that took Foy across Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec, she incorporated the stories of 18 couples (including her own) into the show, which features their photos and an audio documentary of their stories. Admission is free.

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“There were moments when people got choked up when they talked about their separations, having to see their partners leave (the U.S.) and say goodbye,” said Foy.

“There were all these emotions, the sense of helplessness, desperation, fear of separation, uncertainty and having their lives in limbo.”

Many of the couples, she said, have had to pay a huge price for love: leaving family and friends behind, giving up successful careers and incurring debts from the immigration.

“It was a big decision for them. Some were struggling with unemployment when they moved here,” said Foy, 35, a native of North Carolina, who is finishing a master of fine arts degree in documentary media at Ryerson University.

“They all had to give up a lot to be here, to be permanently together and legally together.”

However, not all the couples in the show lived happily ever after. Foy said two of the 18 couples split up after coming here because the struggle was too all-consuming.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in December that it’s unconstitutional to restrict the interpretation of “marriage” and “spouse” only to heterosexual unions and opened the door for gay marriage — and immigration — Foy said most couples in her project have no desire to return.

“We are just grateful to Canada because it welcomed us,” said Foy.

Stories: HIROSHI & MARK

Mark Knox, a sound engineer, and Hiroshi Toriyabe, a business analyst, met in 1998, when Toriyabe was studying in Pennsylvania as an international student from Japan. The two moved in together two years later.

Toriyabe’s student visa expired in 2005, requiring him to leave the U.S. Running out of options to stay in the U.S., he returned to Japan while their immigration application to Canada was in process.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen,” Toriyabe recalled. “The uncertainty was very uncomfortable. You couldn’t commit or plan your life. That really bothered me.”

While the two were apart, from 2005 to 2007, they spoke every day on Skype but managed to visit each other only three times, for a total of five weeks.

Knox recalled that on the day they moved to Toronto, Aug. 31, 2007, they were “incredibly excited” to be starting a new chapter of their lives together. “I’m glad we did it, and we’re not looking back,” Knox said.

Though Toriyabe found a job after three months, Knox struggled to get contract work without a professional network. And he had the extra burden of leaving behind his 82-year-old mother in Indianapolis.

“In Toronto, everyone comes from another country. Everyone has some stories to tell,” said Toriyabe. “Ours just happens that we are both from different countries and we happen to be gay. Ours is just one of many stories in Toronto.”

Stories: MICHELLE & VERONIQUE

Michelle Paymar, a filmmaker, and Veronique Martinaud, a graphic designer, met in Paris in 1995 while Paymar was visiting friends in France.

“It was love at the first sight,” she said.

To allow them to be together, Paymar found a contract job in Paris for a short period. When she had to go, Martinaud took a year-long sabbatical from her job at an insurance company to stay in Los Angeles.

“It was very difficult because I wasn’t working,” said Martinaud. “I never said at the border that I had a partner. Otherwise, they would be more suspicious that I wanted to stay. I was always afraid something would go wrong.”

To remain in the U.S. legally, Martinaud enrolled herself at the University of California, Los Angeles, to study graphic design. But “the clock was ticking” when it was time to graduate. She tried unsuccessfully to find jobs and stay on a work permit.

“There was no light at the end of the tunnel. We didn’t have any option,” said Martinaud. “I was stressed the whole time. I just wanted to have a wife, job, the (immigration) paper and be a regular citizen.”

Finally, an immigration lawyer suggested the couple move to Canada — an option that worried Paymar.

“My career is based on personal connection. I didn’t know if that was possible in Canada. My friends and family were in L.A. It was a very difficult moment,” said Paymar. “I cried. I was screaming and kicking because I didn’t want to leave.”

The couple moved to Vancouver in 2007 and formed a social group with 20-odd other bi-national couples who moved to Canada because it was the only viable option that would allow them to stay together. (Same-sex unions have been legalized in France and some U.S. states only within the past year.)

“We’re incredibly grateful to Canada to have accepted us, so we can stay together,” said Paymar. “I will never forget that.”

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